Fallout
by Subtlynice
Summary: Spoilers for The Golden Lily. Sydney has to deal with the repercussions of choosing her duty to the Alchemists over her feelings for a certain Moroi. A series of Sydrian oneshot ficlets written post-TGL.
1. Fallout

A/N: A **very** short drabblefic written for a prompt on tumblr. Just finished _The Golden Lily_ and I found myself itching to write something for my new favourite pairing: Sydney Sage and Adrian Ivashkov. Hoping to write more (read: longer) fanfic for the _Vampire Academy/Bloodlines_ fandom in the future!

Prompt: Sydney and Adrian's first meeting after the end of _The Golden Lily_.

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**Fallout**

I'd timed our arrival at Clarence's carefully, getting everyone ready an hour before we were due to leave; part of me hoped that if Jill's feeding didn't take too long, we could walk in and out before Adrian had even arrived.

No such luck. The Mustang was sitting in the drive as we pulled up.

"Great," I muttered, killing the gas as I looked out at the sunshine yellow beauty, its tires streaked with desert dust. I couldn't imagine the sight of such a gorgeous car bringing me down in any other situation. Angeline looked confused as Eddie cast me a sympathetic glance. Jill just frowned. She had hardly spoken to me in the last few days, but her stony silences told me all that I needed to know.

Jill jumped from the car as soon as it had stilled. I stayed in my seat a moment longer, heart hammering against my ribs, before I climbed out, brushing down my skirt and covertly checking my hair in the reflection of Latte's side window.

Unmanageable as always. Not that it mattered.

Jill rang the bell as I arrived, following behind Eddie and Angeline. From inside there was silence; then footsteps. I took a deep breath.

The door opened and there stood Adrian. Dishevelled as ever, in jeans and a button-down shirt that looked even more wrinkled than the one he'd worn to meet his father. His hair, usually artfully messy, was stuck up at odd angles as though he'd run his hands through it, and there were deep shadows under his eyes. He looked like a man who was hurting and didn't care who saw it. He also looked gorgeous.

I suddenly felt uncomfortably warm.

"Ah," he said in a dull voice. "You're early too."

His piercing green eyes flickered over all of us, finally resting on mine. This morning, while preparing for this trip, I'd imagined what I might say to him if we did cross paths. I'd imagined sitting down on Clarence's sofa and calmly explaining why both our races agreed that relationships between Moroi and humans were taboo. Then I'd planned to ask him if we could go back to the way we were before, admitting just how much I'd missed him over the past few days.

But those thoughts all died when I met his eyes.

_His eyes blazing as he reached for me; his lips warm and soft against mine; white-hot heat racing through my veins as his fingers traced the nape of my neck; his other hand on my waist, tugging me closer – _

I looked away, heat rising in my cheeks, my body still tingling all over from the memory. Jill pushed past me and reached for Adrian's hand, pulling him back into the house. She murmured something in a low voice too quiet for me to hear.

I didn't regret pulling away from him. I didn't regret the words I'd said to him. I _couldn't_ regret it. Moroi and humans didn't belong together. We were just too different.

I stepped into the house, exhaling shakily as I did so. Up ahead, I sensed rather than saw Adrian and Jill halt. I didn't make the mistake of looking up, but even so, I could feel his gaze on me again.

_My lips moving back against his. The way I'd reached up to pull him closer. That single endless moment of pure, selfish thoughtlessness._

Adrian and Jill turned the corner, Eddie and Angeline following. I walked a few paces behind, the kiss still vivid in my mind.

Try as I might, I couldn't bring myself to regret that either.

~Fin.

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A/N: I'll be happy to write a few more Sydrian drabbles if I'm given prompts! As always, reviews would make my day. :)


	2. Pumpkin Pie

A/N: Thanks for the reviews so far! At the moment I have five fic prompts still to fill. When they're complete, I'll post them here.

Prompt: Thanksgiving with the _Bloodlines_ gang.

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**Pumpkin Pie**

"Thank you for dinner, Dorothy," I told Clarence's kindly feeder as I helped her clear the table. "It was delicious."

"Yeah," Adrian muttered, behind me. "That one potato Sage ate looked _really_ appetising."

I stiffened, but Dorothy only smiled and patted my arm. "Thank you, dear," she said. She took the empty plates from my arms and waved away my protests. "I can carry these from here."

I returned to the table somewhat reluctantly. There was no doubt about it – this was by far the strangest Thanksgiving I'd ever celebrated. Back home, Thanksgiving was a family event. We'd sit around the table, clasping hands and thank God; for the food we were about to eat, for our family's safety and for the Alchemists' tireless work in protecting humankind against the evil of vampires, Moroi and Strigoi alike.

Today, I'd sat down to eat with two Dhampirs, three Moroi, and a woman who willingly gave them her blood. But that wasn't the strangest part. Despite the odd group we made, and the tension that was always present nowadays when Adrian and I were in the same room, this Thanksgiving had… actually been kind of fun.

Since Moroi eat very little, the meal had been short, but entertaining. The small room was filled with talking and laughter enough to raise all our spirits. Jill, who had been noticeably upset this morning to be spending Thanksgiving so far away from her parents, had brightened up considerably. Even Adrian was back to his usual sarcastic self, looking more jovial than I'd seen him in weeks.

When Dorothy came back from the kitchen, the delicious smell of pumpkin pie filled the room. She gave each of us a plate, ignoring my refusals. I waited while everyone else tucked in.

Clarence finished his slice first. "My compliments to the chef," he said with a nod in Adrian's direction.

I frowned. I wasn't the only one – Eddie and Angeline both looked bewildered too. Jill just smirked knowingly.

"_You_ cooked pie?" Eddie asked him incredulously.

Adrian shrugged nonchalantly, but his shoulders were tensed as if he were bracing himself for the inevitable teasing. "I came here yesterday for my feed and got bored. I smelled pumpkin and wanted pie. Dorothy offered to show me how it was done. The next thing I knew… I was baking."

Eddie sniggered. I looked down at the untouched slice of pie on the dessert plate in front of me and felt a rush of warmth. The idea of Adrian doing something as domestic as baking was just so…

I reached for my fork and took a small bite of pie to distract myself from where my thoughts were headed.

_Mmm._ Admittedly, I didn't often eat dessert, but this had to be one of the best pumpkin pies I'd ever tasted. I put my fork down, wishing I hadn't tried it at all, when I suddenly realised all eyes were on me.

"It's low calorie," Jill said quickly, breaking the silence. "Sugar-free. No eggs or butter. Completely Sydney-friendly." Then she looked down, as if embarrassed. Across the table, Adrian scowled at her.

I looked back at the pie, reminded of the pot of pomegranate gelato Adrian had brought for me. The same sudden warmth of affection rushed through me and this time I found it hard to quash it down.

"He had some trouble with it too," Jill said with a smirk, as though Adrian wasn't currently looking at her like he was imagining all the different ways he could silence her without invalidating the Queen's throne. "Wasn't sure at first what measuring cups were or how to use them. Practically re-decorated Dorothy's kitchen in flour. Ended up buying all new ingredients and starting from scratch."

I smiled as everyone laughed. Adrian was good enough to accept their teasing with only a few moderate swear words and pointed sarcastic remarks. He glanced at me and I looked away quickly, cheeks flushed.

I could imagine the kind of text I might have received from him yesterday if our relationship was still as it was a few months ago: _Emergency, come quick. Bring pie mix._

But that was before the kiss that had changed everything. Now, just three weeks later, things were painfully awkward between us. More than anything, I wanted that easy camaraderie back. I wanted to hear him call me _Sage_ and see that smirky smile he'd give me whenever I complimented him, intentionally or otherwise. I wanted my inbox swarmed with his pointless but entertaining emails. I wanted him to look at me with anything other than longing and regret.

Without him as a constant presence in my life, I was… lonely. And judging from Adrian's statement that he'd been bored enough to try his hand at baking, I guessed he was lonely without me too. That terrified me more than I cared to admit.

_There's no one else out there who understands you like I do._

I was starting to worry that that might be truer than I'd originally thought.

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A/N: Considering moving this story to the _Bloodlines_ archive, which I wasn't aware of until yesterday. To my readers - which do you usually use to search for Sydney/Adrian fics?


	3. Family Matters

A/N: Story moved to the _Bloodlines_ archive. Thank you again for all the reviews so far!

Prompt: Adrian meets Sydney's family.

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**Family Matters**

Oh no. No. This couldn't be happening.

It was a late Saturday morning and I found myself once again, in Adrian's apartment. Despite the awkwardness and uncertainty that divided us now, the situation in Palm Springs hadn't changed. And as much as I'd rather it wasn't the case, Adrian and I couldn't avoid each other. It was my duty to the Alchemists to stay informed on his whereabouts and wellbeing. And now that Dimitri and Sonya were gone, he was the only person in Palm Springs with information on the latest Spirit experiments; a project that my people were intensely interested in.

I'd been there for ten minutes, successfully keeping my emotions in check and my questions distant-yet-amicable when the doorbell rang, cutting me off mid-sentence. Adrian looked up from his can of diet coke. He'd been just as distant; muttering one-word answers to my questions and refusing to look me in the eye. But when the bell rang, we both looked up, our eyes finally meeting. It had taken me a while to tear my gaze away.

"I'll get it," he said, setting down his drink and moving towards the door. I think both of us were secretly relieved at the interruption.

At least, I was until Adrian returned with none other than my father, Jared Sage, in tow. Behind him walked Zoe, who was watching Adrian's back with a look of pure terror on her face. She lifted her hand, tracing the Alchemist symbol against evil in the air, and to my horror I saw a glimmer of gold as her cheek caught the light.

_No. No. This can't be happening. She's too young for this._

I stood as my father nodded towards me. "Sydney," was all he said in greeting.

"Sir."

"I expected to find you up at the school," he said. "Instead, I ran into one of your… charges. She directed me to this apartment."

He must have spoken with Jill, I realised. Jill would know instantly that I was with Adrian. In fact, she could be watching this conversation right now. The thought sent a shiver up my spine. My father, meanwhile, was eying the bright yellow walls with clear distaste.

"Yes, sir," I said. "I'm here visiting Mr. Ivashkov for updates concerning the Spirit experiments." I gestured to Adrian, silently begging him to keep quiet. "Mr. Ivashkov is one of the Spirit users involved in the research. I'm sure you've read my reports."

My father nodded. Zoe cast another wary gaze in Adrian's direction. When he caught her staring, he smiled. Her eyes darted away. She curled her fingers together, quite obviously terrified. Adrian frowned and shot me a questioning look.

"Why don't we step outside to talk?" I suggested. Whatever my father had to say, it was Alchemist business and I doubted he'd want a vampire listening in.

"There is no need for that," my father said stiffly, much to my surprise. "I won't be staying long. I only came to drop your sister off. I'll be in San Diego for a few days on business and I thought that while I'm nearby, you could show Zoe your work here. She'll be following in your footsteps soon enough." He gestured to Zoe who glared up at me. It would have hurt more if she hadn't looked so terrified; as it was, it only made me even sadder at the sight of the new lily on her cheek.

"Your sister?" Adrian cut in. He looked surprised. "Sage, you never said –"

"Of course, sir," I said quickly, but not before my father noted the familiarity with which Adrian spoke to me. He frowned – not at Adrian, but at me. Whereas Zoe couldn't stop herself from staring, my father hadn't so much as glanced at Adrian since the moment he stepped foot in the bright living room. He seemed determined to ignore the vampire in the room.

But I couldn't focus on that now. My heart was thumping loudly in my chest. Why had the Alchemists tattooed Zoe without informing me? Why would my father bring Zoe here without even arranging it with me or the Alchemists first? There had to be more to his story. Was this really an experience placement for my little sister? Or was it a warning for me?

_Or, perhaps I'm not the only one in our family treading in dangerous waters._

Before I could say another word, my father reached out and gripped my arm tightly. "You've done a good job here," he said. "Everyone is very impressed. Don't mess it up."

I could feel Adrian's gaze on us, but I kept my head lowered. Apparently satisfied with my silence, my father leaned back and patted Zoe on the shoulder.

"I'll be back for you by Monday night at the latest. Don't worry about accommodation," he added to me, "She's another cousin. I've cleared it with your headmistress."

I nodded.

"Goodbye, Zoe," said my father, already turning away.

"Goodbye, Father – sir –" Zoe stammered.

Adrian's eyes widened. I knew he was connecting the dots and my heart plummeted as, for the first time in weeks, I saw determination and mischief flare in his eyes. _No. Don't you dare._

Unfortunately for me, Adrian only smirked when he caught my eye and noticed my look of abject horror. He set down his diet coke and thrust his hand out in my father's direction. "Mr. Sage, _sir_," he said, every word dripping with false sincerity. "It has been a pleasure to meet you, _sir_."

My father turned and stared at Adrian's hand as though it were a scorpion poised to attack. Adrian's smirk widened.

"Yes, a pleasure," my father said in his clipped, precise way, although his tone indicated that it was anything but. Gingerly, he reached out and grasped Adrian's had with his. Adrian's hand tightened for a moment and he stared at my father for a long time before smiling that infuriatingly smug smile again and drawing back.

"And congratulations," he continued, drawing out each syllable with exaggerated praise, "on raising such a perfect little Alchemist." He grinned at me; it was the first time he'd shown the slightest bit of emotion towards me since the day everything had changed between us.

My father took a few steps back, looking horrified now to be in the same room as this madman – this Moroi. He cleared his throat, straightened his tie and nodded to Adrian – the closest form of agreement he could manage. At least he hadn't _disagreed_ with Adrian's statement.

My father was quick to leave then. With another reminder to me that he'd be back on Monday, he was gone, not even waiting for me or Adrian to show him out. I waited until I heard the slam of his car door before I allowed myself to relax.

"Well," Adrian said cheerfully. "I think that went well." He grinned at me, eyes blazing with a fire I'd come to accept as Spirit madness. Or perhaps it was just a fire that belonged solely to Adrian. "Wouldn't have wanted to make a bad impression."

I couldn't help but smile at that, even as my stomach twisted with longing for the days in which this easy familiarity between us was a regular occurrence. I shook my head. Beside me, Zoe's eyes darted between us, shocked.

"Zoe," I said to her now in the gentlest voice I could manage, "it's good to see you. This is Adrian."

Zoe opened her mouth – perhaps to tell me that she was still mad at me for showing her up the last time we'd seen each other. I didn't get a chance to find out, as Adrian stepped up beside her. He kept his distance, not offering his hand as he had with my father. And this time, when he spoke it was with genuine warmth.

"Zoe Sage. It really _is_ a pleasure to meet you," he told her. He offered her a small smile, his eyes curiously cautious.

For a moment, Zoe could only stare at him blankly. And then, to my astonishment, the tiniest smile graced her cheeks. Adrian practically beamed in success. I could only gape. What was it about that man that drew everyone – even terrified 15-year-old Alchemist girls – in?

Adrian disappeared into the kitchen only to return a few moments later with a can of coke – "Not diet, we don't want you wasting away like your sister" – which Zoe accepted, relaxing enough to sit on the sofa and take a small, cautious sip. Adrian took a seat on the sofa opposite her, still talking with more enthusiasm than I'd seen him display for weeks.

Despite the tension in my body, I smiled. Maybe this situation wouldn't be so bad for either of us after all.

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A/N: I'm 99.9% sure that Sydney has never mentioned her younger sister to Adrian before, and only mentioned her older sister in passing. I could be wrong though! If I am, I apologise.


	4. Wedding Bells pt 1

A/N: Part one of two, since I've combined two prompts for this one. The second part, which I'll probably be posting on Monday, will be written from Sydney's perspective.

Prompts: A sydrian dance at Sonya's wedding / Rose finds out about Adrian and Sydney

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**Wedding Bells (part 1)**

Jill collapsed into a velvet-cushioned seat, groaning aloud in frustration.

"Jill? You okay there?" asked a familiar voice.

If there was one person at this wedding that Jill hadn't really been looking forward to seeing (other than her sister) it was Rose Hathaway. She liked Rose. She'd kind of idolised her, even. But that had been before the bond. Seeing Rose through a hurt and angry Adrian's eyes had given her a new perspective. She still liked Rose, but it was hard to separate her own feelings from Adrian's sometimes. So although Rose was the only person who could really help her with the newly-forged bond, she'd deliberately distanced herself slightly from the older girl before arriving in Palm Springs. Jill had a good feeling Rose knew why, and if she'd been hurt by it, she'd been good enough not to say so.

Rose stood before her, hands on hips, looking as gorgeous and sultry as ever in a pair of regulation black Guardian trousers and a very _non-_regulation silky red strap top that showed off her perfectly toned shoulders and biceps. Rose was officially on the job, as were all the Guardians here but they'd all splashed a little colour into their uniforms for the celebration. Jill tensed and twisted her fingers together in her lap, remembering why the celebration was such a high-security event. The last time she and her sister – the Queen – had been in the same room, she'd nearly died. Scratch that – she _had_ died. And although Sonya and Mikhail had invited less than twenty guests, those guests included Queen Vasilissa Dragomir and her partner Christian Ozera, of the disgraced Ozera family; the queen's notorious dhampir guard Rose Hathaway; the entire team working on the Spirit experiments; an Alchemist; a member of the anti-Court Keepers society, and a former Strigoi – two, if you counted the bride. Oh, and Jill herself.

A few weeks ago, Jill had been looking forward to this event. She was tired of being cooped up in Palm Springs, sick of the twisting feeling she felt in her gut every time she saw Eddie and Angeline together, and she felt as though she was being driven out of her mind by Adrian's longing for Sydney, which was easily three times worse than his depression after the break-up with Rose.

This, though, made her long for Palm Springs again. It was just… so frustrating to see everyone continuing on with their lives at Court, knowing that this was just a short visit back to the Moroi world, one in which she wouldn't even be allowed to see her parents. Lissa hadn't spoken to her yet – she was too busy dancing with her boyfriend, enjoying the brief moment of freedom from her duties. Jill felt a faint twinge of pain at that – she was just another unpleasant part of her newfound sister's duties, nothing more.

Rose plonked herself down on the chair beside Jill. Jill frowned down at her. "Aren't you supposed to be over there?" She waved a hand in the direction of Lissa. "You know, guarding?"

Rose smiled and tucked a glossy brown curl behind her ear. "In a big event like this, the Queen has far more than the usual number of guards at her disposal. They've worked out a system, where –" She broke off, making a face. "Sorry, I sound like Dimitri. Basically, Lissa's given me the night off. I'm still on duty, though, and you're just as top-security as she is."

Jill looked over her shoulder at the guards surreptitiously hovering there. "Don't I know it."

Rose eyed her as she sat back, lounging in the chair. "Not that it's any of my business," she said, "but you don't seem as happy as Eddie to be back here."

Jill couldn't help but search for him at the mention of his name. It didn't take long to find him in the small crowd of the beautifully lit greenhouse. Eddie and Angeline were dancing. They'd been dancing all night. It was nauseating.

Rose smirked, noting Jill's reaction as she turned deliberately away from the couple.

"You look really pretty tonight, Jill," she said, sounding genuine. "That dress is gorgeous. Judging from the way his eyes seem to keep flitting over to you, Eddie certainly seems to think so, anyway."

"You don't have to do that," Jill said stiffly. "Why are you here, Rose? Other than to pry into my personal life?"

Rose looked taken aback. Her face stiffened angrily and she opened her mouth – perhaps to retort with her usual sassiness –then paused, seeming to think better of her first instincts.

"Listen," she said in a calm, persuasive voice. "I just wanted you to know that if the bond's giving you trouble… Well, I've had plenty of experience with that. I know how it can affect your temper and make you feel like you're going crazy. And I can help you through that. I'm here for you. And if it's just Adrian's mood swings giving you trouble… Well, I'm not his favourite person right now, but I've had plenty of experience with that, too." She smiled wistfully. No matter how badly their relationship had ended, she seemed to still really care about him.

Jill felt the anger drain out of her. Now that she stopped to think about it, she realised she'd been angry for days. Angry with Sydney for her treatment of Adrian, angry with Adrian for wallowing in his heartbreak alone, angry with Eddie and Angeline for… well… being _happy_ together. Was all that anger really hers? Or was it Spirit, leaking through the bond? She supposed she really did need Rose's help after all.

And Rose seemed… different, somehow, than when they'd last spoken properly. Jill guessed that going to college and becoming a full-time Guardian had to pretty be life-changing. Or maybe it was that she no longer felt any lingering resentment towards the girl who'd broken Adrian's heart now that the bond was tugging her towards a very different kind of heartbreak.

"I… I might take you up on that," Jill said quietly, her fingers twisting themselves into knots on her lap.

"Well, I'll be here," Rose said easily. "And Sydney has my number if you ever want to call when you're back in Palm Springs."

Jill couldn't help but scowl at Sydney's name. Rose, as observant as ever, took notice and leaned forward.

"What's up with you and Sydney? I tried talking to her earlier but she seemed… distant. More wary of my company than usual, I mean."

Jill guessed that Sydney's aversion to Rose's company had less to do with her Alchemist beliefs than the fear that Rose, as Adrian's former girlfriend and a Guardian trained in the skills of observation, would be able to see the way she looked at him and draw the same conclusion that Jill already had: no matter how adamantly she denied it, Sydney Sage was just as in love with Adrian Ivashkov as he was with her.

Jill shrugged. "I like Sydney most of the time. But right now… It's a long story."

"Huh," said Rose. She leaned back, studying Sydney across the dance floor. The Alchemist girl was sitting alone in a chair near the dancing guests, smoothing down invisible creases in her gorgeous flowing brown dress. She looked very out of place amongst the dhampirs and moroi. She was as beautiful as ever, and almost without her consent, Jill found herself admiring the cut of her neat blonde hair and the glimmer of the lily on her cheek. Adrian's influence, she knew now. Adrian was sitting a little way away, nursing a bottle of pop – just pop, nothing else – and watching Sydney too. Keeping his distance, Jill thought sadly. Just looking at him, she could feel his longing and regret through the bond. Regret for pushing her, acting too soon and scaring her off. Not for kissing her. He'd never regret _that_.

Jill sighed heavily. Rose turned to her. "You okay?"

Jill nodded, pushing herself away from Adrian's churning thoughts.

Rose didn't even have to hesitate. "Is it the bond?"

Jill nodded again.

Rose turned to look at Adrian. "He feels things so strongly," she said. "Just like Lissa. The bond used to drive me crazy. I can only imagine…" She trailed off, still staring at Adrian. Who was still nursing his drink and staring at –

Oh. Oops.

Rose swore suddenly. And loudly. A couple of the guards behind us frowned, like they disapproved of one of the Queen's own guardians swearing in front of a sixteen-year-old while on duty.

"Jill… you want to explain again why you're mad at Sydney right now?" Rose asked in a hushed voice, leaning closer to Jill as if trying to keep the conversation from the guardians hovering around them. She looked shocked at what she saw.

"Um… no?" Jill replied meekly.

Rose shook her head, eyes wide in bewilderment and something else. "This is crazy, even by Adrian's standards. She's a human. No, she's an _Alchemist_, for Christ's sake. I'm glad he's moved on and all, but… what the hell is he _thinking_?"

Jill couldn't help but bristle at Rose's disbelieving tone. She knew the older girl didn't mean anything by it, and if she wasn't privy to Adrian's every thought she probably would've reacted the same way. As it was, she knew that there had been very little thinking involved.

"Adrian follows his heart first and his mind second," Jill said softly as they watched Sydney rise and make her way across the dance floor towards the exit. "You of all people should know that." Rose's expression softened as Jill continued, "Sydney, of course, does the opposite."

Rose shook her head sadly. "Oh, Adrian," she said as they watched him rise to move in her direction. "You sure know how to pick 'em. I hoped that once he got out of Court he'd find a girl who'd be able to return his feelings. Instead he goes straight for the one girl who never will."

Jill said nothing. Sydney's feelings weren't hers to share. Plus, she had a feeling that Rose, who'd known the pre-Adrian Sydney pretty well, wouldn't believe her even if she did. Jill still remembered how formal and distant Sydney had been with her when they'd first arrived in Palm Springs.

Rose still looked a little bit bewildered. "Don't get me wrong," she said. "I really like Sydney. But I _so_ didn't see this coming. They're just total opposites." Rose paused for a moment, before she grinned mischievously. "Though that can be a good thing. I guess even guys like Adrian have a secret librarian fantasy."

"Oh, gross," Jill said, a blush rising to her cheeks even as she smiled a little. Rose's sense of humour reminded her a lot of Adrian's, and she'd missed Adrian's snark.

Rose's grin faded as they watched Adrian cross the dance floor, swerving past the happy couples, his eyes fixed on the blonde girl hurrying from the greenhouse. When Jill sighed unhappily, Rose leaned over and took her hand in a reassuring grip.

"Don't worry about Adrian," she said. "There's someone out there for him. He's just not looking in the right places. Someday he'll find a girl who –"

She broke off once again. Jill wasn't sure why – then she felt it through the bond. The warm rush of emotion that Adrian only felt for one person. When she peered in the direction Rose was staring, what she saw made her gasp and lean forward in her chair.

Adrian had caught up with Sydney just outside the entrance to the greenhouse. They were almost completely hidden from view by the darkness outside and the foliage curling up the greenhouse walls. Only the candlelight inside and the glass walls (along with Jill and Rose's superior vampiric eyesight) made them visible. Still, Jill doubted that anyone not actively looking for them would see the couple embracing by the greenhouse doors.

Adrian had his arms around Sydney. And Sydney, the golden lily on her cheek hidden in the darkness outside, was leaning into his touch, her eyes fluttering closed as they swayed in time to the gentle string music the band had just begun to play. He bent down to whisper something to her. She tensed and for a moment, it looked as though she was going to pull away. And then she relaxed, leaning closer.

Adrian's emotional response was so strong that Jill had a hard time fighting the pull from his mind. She did though, not wanting to intrude on this moment. She doubted it would last long.

Beside her, Rose seemed lost for words. Or, at least, lost for words that weren't a garbled string of shocked expletives.

"Damn," she said at last, once the tirade was over, "I _knew_ I should've stayed in Palm Springs. I miss everything back here." Her eyes gleamed with curiosity as she turned to Jill. "Who else knows about this?"

"No one," Jill said with hurried anxiety. "I mean, we all kind of know that Adrian's completely hung up over Sydney, but I'm the only one who knows that she's completely hung up over him too even though Sydney herself isn't even one hundred per cent aware of it, but still, both of them would probably kill me if they knew I was talking about it, especially to you –"

Rose laughed and Jill felt her cheeks reddening again.

"Please," she said. "You won't say anything, will you?"

Rose shook her head slowly. "This is too weird," she said. "I don't know whether to be happy for them or worry about their mental health. You know what Sydney called me when we first met? Unnatural. And now she's…"

Jill smiled. "Sydney's different now," she said.

Rose smiled and glanced once more in the direction of the faintly-visible couple, still swaying in time to the music wafting out through the doors and into the cool night air. "Yeah," she said after a while. "I guess she is."

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A/N: Again, thank you so much for all the comments so far. I'm glad people enjoyed the last prompt - I might go back to it once I've completed all the ficlets still to be written for this series!


	5. Wedding Bells pt 2

A/N: I know I promised Sydney's perspective of this scene, but the angst that Adrian's pov promised was just too tempting to ignore. Part two of last week's update, but you can totally skip over Jill's pov to get straight to the sydrian stuff!

Prompt: A sydrian dance at Sonya's wedding

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**Wedding Bells pt. 2**

"Sydney. Wait."

Adrian wasn't sure why he'd chased after her. He'd long accepted that he was a glutton for punishment; after all, he'd spent the best part of the last year chasing after Rose like a whipped puppy running back to the familiar arms of a cruel master. After Sydney had rebuffed him, he'd deliberately distanced himself from her, not wanting to become that man again. And yet here he was, calling out to her as she fled Sonya and Mikhail's wedding reception looking for all the world like a real-life Cinderella. Only it wasn't a dashing prince Sydney Sage was running from. He'd seen the dull look in her eyes as she sat alone among the dancing guests. It was a look he was all too familiar with. Loneliness. And he knew just as well as she did how painful it was to feel alone in the middle of a crowd.

So when she'd stood up and edged her way warily through the throng of dancing moroi and dhampirs towards the exit, he'd found his own feet moving him in her direction, chasing blindly after her without really realising where he was going until he was outside the huge greenhouse, just a few steps from where she now stood.

Sydney tensed at the sound of his voice and when she turned to face him, her eyes didn't quite meet his. "Adrian," she said tiredly. "What do you want?"

_You. I want to see you smile. I want to hear you chattering away about architecture or chemistry, or any number of dull subjects that normally I couldn't care less about. I want to kiss you again and feel you kissing me back._

"Well," he said in a light, careful voice, "it's a wedding. I was going to ask for a dance."

Sydney's eyes flew up to meet his, wide with shock. She stood rigid in her gorgeous taupe gown, hands clenched at her sides. She took a step further from him; a step further out of sight of the dhampir guardians standing watch by the entrance of the domed glass greenhouse.

"I don't think that's a good idea," she said.

"Come on, Sage," he wheedled. "Just one dance. Then you can leave, go back to your empty room to report on the wedding security and life at Court and whatever else it is the alchemists want to know. I won't try to stop you. Just one dance."

She didn't reply. She just stood there, staring at him. Her gaze stripped him bare. He knew he looked good in the tux he'd fished out for the occasion but with Sydney he found it impossible to hide behind his looks and a charming smile. He'd let her under his skin and now, when she looked at him like that, she saw everything. She saw past the pretences, the sharp wit and narcissism, to the broken, half-mad man he really was. Even Jill couldn't ever understand him in the way she did. And in her, he saw a kindred spirit, a hollow girl, her outer shell cracking under the weight of so many expectations. Prim and proper she might be, but Sydney Sage was the one person he could not hide from. The one person he didn't want to hide from.

She pursed her lips and he could almost see the painted cogs turning in her mind, ticking away as she analysed his words and applied logic and reason to them. Any moment now she would turn away.

And then the most remarkable thing happened. She took a step closer.

"Adrian," she said in a half-strangled voice, her eyes swimming with sadness, "I'm tired."

And although the words could have been a refusal, Adrian knew what she really meant. He was tired too – tired of pretending that he wasn't in love with her; tired of maintaining a cool distance whenever he spoke to her. Tired of feigning neutrality as he watched Sydney struggle with the war between her head and her heart.

"Oh, Sage," was all he said, and then she was in his arms without him quite understanding how she'd come to be there.

"Adrian," she breathed into his shirt as she clutched the back of his jacket in an unusual display of affection, "I –"

"Shh," he said. He didn't want them to talk. They'd only end up arguing, and he didn't want this brief respite from Sydney's cold, distant professionalism to end so soon. "We're supposed to be dancing, remember?"

She leaned into his touch, closing her eyes and letting him tug her closer. The darkness of the night and the thick green tendrils adorning the glass walls provided a small degree of privacy and he was determined to make the most of it. His hands splayed out on her lower back, feeling the dip just above her bony hips and the curve of her spine jutting out against his fingertips. She wasn't quite skin and bone, but she was getting there – he knew from Jill that she'd been eating less and less recently. It had diminished her beauty but it did nothing to quell his attraction to her. Instead, it only worsened the regret he felt at distancing himself from her. The make-up she wore did little to hide the shadows under her eyes and he knew that he was partly to blame for the churning thoughts that kept her up at night.

Despite the late December chill, her skin still smelled of summer dust and a sweet floral perfume he recognised from the last time he had held her this close. He breathed in deeply, inhaling the scent of summer sunshine that belonged to no one else but Sydney Sage.

"Adrian," she said in a small voice as they swayed, "I'm sorry. I know you must hate me for even saying those words, but I mean it. I'm sorry I can't… be with you the way you want me to. I just…" She opened her eyes and stared at him, more confused and conflicted than he'd ever seen her look before.

"I know," he said as his heart twisted with a curiously muted pain. He knew that it would hurt more later. Now, with Sydney so close, with her arms reaching up to wrap around his neck and her eyes burning into his, it was bearable. Maybe his actions tonight had been crazy, but if this was Spirit's doing he'd gladly accept the inevitable fall into madness.

He knew he shouldn't be holding her like this. It was too soon. Eighteen years of indoctrination against his kind hadn't been undone by a single kiss, and it likely wouldn't be undone at all if he kept pushing. _Just one dance,_ he told himself as they swayed to the faint whine of violins on the other side of the glass. He moved lazily, leading her into a slow-stepped dance and she matched each movement perfectly.

"You can dance," she said, sounding bemused and a little dazed. Her fingers, seemingly of their own accord, brushed the hair at the nape of his neck, sending shivers down his spine.

"Don't be so surprised, Sage," Adrian said with a grin. "The Ivashkovs are royalty, remember?" He dipped her without warning, hoping to catch her off guard, but she simply leaned back in his arms, trusting him completely.

"You're not going to ask why _I_ learned?" she asked as he brought her closer to him again.

"'Course not," he said. "You can do everything else. Why would dancing be any different?"

She smiled, letting him lead her into another step as they twirled effortlessly, the cold night air tugging at their formal wear.

"There," he said, bending down to breathe the words close to her skin. "That's better."

She lost her smile and stiffened, seeming to realise for the first time that she was dancing with a moroi. The vampire she'd been avoiding for a month and a half. And then she relaxed completely in his arms, giving herself over to the ever-present tug that he now knew she felt too.

"It's okay, Sage," he whispered into her skin. "There's no one else here. Just you and me."

He didn't voice what they both knew. That soon, this moment would end. And when it did, neither of them would know where they now stood with each other.

"What did you mean, 'that's better'?" she asked him as they continued to sway on the spot, so close now that even their feet were touching.

"You just… you looked so lost and sad," he said softly, hugging her tightly. "So alone. I just wanted to make you smile."

"You always make me smile," she said.

"Not always." He couldn't help but remember that day. The day he'd kissed her. The day she'd walked away from him.

Her smile now was sad again. "You do," she said. "You make me cry and lie awake at night cursing myself. And sometimes just the thought of you makes me feel like I'm going insane. But most of all… most of all, you make me smile."

It wasn't much of a declaration, but it was a start. Hell, it was the closest she'd come to admitting her feelings since she'd returned his kiss in November. She wasn't ready for anything more and he knew it'd be a while before she would be. But this he could accept. This could tide him over.

He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and tugged her closer, his heart plummeting at the knowledge that all too soon he'd have to let her go.

* * *

A/N: Again, thank you for all the lovely reviews. I've still got four more of these stories to write, although I'm planning on combining two into one longer piece which will probably be posted seperately. If I do, I'll update this story with an AN when it's posted. :)


	6. Meeting Marcus

Prompt: Sydney meets Marcus Finch for the first time.

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**Meeting Marcus**

She recognises him instantly as the man from Clarence's photograph.

He's hardly changed in the few years since it was taken. He looks to be in his early twenties now, which fits Clarence's account. He's still very handsome, in a conventional way, with his straight blonde hair cut short and his shirt sleeves rolled up to expose tanned, muscular forearms. But what really catches her eye is the strange indigo tattoo marring his cheek.

Her heart plummets as she catches sight of it. She'd tried to rationalise his tattoo, the Alchemists' missing records and Clarence's vague account. But now that she sees him in the flesh, she knows that she can't possibly lie to herself any longer. The glimmer of gold beneath the lines of indigo is unmistakable. Marcus Finch is an ex-Alchemist.

Which means that the Alchemists have been lying to her.

A dull weight settles in the pit of her stomach. She'd known all along, of course, that they'd lied to her about Marcus Finch's whereabouts. It had taken five days for Sydney to track him down. In that time, she'd surmised that whoever Marcus Finch was, he really didn't want to be found. _And if he's hiding from anyone,_ she guesses, _it's probably Alchemists. Like me._

She considers leaving. Walking away from her quarry. The Alchemists need never know about this journey. It had been a crazy decision to come here anyway. Sydney had been collecting together as much information as she could possibly find on the Warriors of Light, and already, her research had filled three files. To her knowledge, Marcus Finch has only had one encounter with them. Hardly worth the hours of research and the gruelling journey she'd taken to find him.

And yet…

Her thoughts betray her, straying as they so often do recently, to the day she'd first seen Clarence's photograph of Finch. The day she'd come to a startling revelation regarding her feelings for a certain moroi, and his feelings for her. The kiss she hadn't been able to forget or regret, no matter how hard she tried.

If that kiss or the lingering feelings it had evoked in her were ever discovered, maybe she'd need to hide from her people, too. And this could be her only chance to talk to the strange man with the indigo tattoo.

Something about the memory of that day gives her strength, even as equal amounts of shame and longing curdle in her stomach. She takes a confident step forward, and another, until she is standing right behind the man she has travelled so far to find.

"Marcus Finch?" she asks in a clear, steady voice. He turns, his face revealing polite interest; then shock as he registers her lily tattoo.

"No – " he begins. She raises her hands in the universal sign of surrender.

"My name is Sydney Sage," she says quickly, "and I'm here on my own behalf, no one else's."

He eyes her suspiciously. "What do you want?" he asks sharply. Sydney pauses. What _does_ she want? The question causes a fresh bout of longing to well up within her. _Adrian_. She wants Adrian.

"The truth," she says finally, daring to make eye contact for the first time with this strange man whose very existence defies everything she's been taught to believe about her people and their ways. "I'm here to learn the truth."

She knows she's said the right thing when Marcus takes a step back and nods once. "Well, then, Sydney Sage," he says, his eyes evaluating her keenly. "You've come to the right person."

* * *

A/N: Three prompts to go! (And they're all Sydrian-related.) I say it every time, but I really do mean it: I love every single review I read. :)


	7. Strictly Business

Prompt: The Bloodlines gang go out to dinner at a fancy resturant. Note: I kind of butchered this prompt. The story ran in a different direction, so I went with it.

* * *

**Strictly Business**

"Well," said Adrian mildly. "It would appear that we've been stood up."

I glanced towards him and quickly looked away, my eyes flickering over the four empty seats at our table in mortification. "You think?" I muttered.

I'd been the first to arrive, dead on seven o'clock. I would have given Jill, Eddie and Angeline a ride, but they'd insisted that they wanted to spend the day wandering around the few shops Palm Springs had to offer.

"We'll be with Adrian," Jill said, batting away my concerns. "And I have two perfectly capable guardians. You stay, dig into the pile of homework assignments I know you've been itching to get started on. We'll see you later."

Jill had inadvertently – or, looking back, probably intentionally – uttered the magic word, the only word that could get me to relent: Adrian. I'd been avoiding him as much as possible after a few unbearably tense encounters between us and I had no desire to spend an entire day in his presence, always uncomfortably aware of his proximity and his gaze on my back and the butterflies in my stomach. Instead, I'd spent the day indoors, working not on homework, but on the spell I'd promised to perfect for Ms. Terwilliger, absorbing myself in the dull, hard work and only stopping when Jill called a little over an hour ago to invite me to this restaurant for a "family dinner". I had tried contacting her, Eddie and Angeline since, but their phones were all switched off. Usually, this would have given me reason to panic. But right now, sitting opposite Adrian in a cosy, dimly-lit restaurant unlike any I'd ever frequented before, it only raised suspicion and dread.

"They set us up," I realised. Adrian, who seemed to have already reached this conclusion, leaned back in his seat and smiled ruefully.

"I should have guessed," he said, "when Jill phoned me three times in one hour to persuade me that attendance tonight was mandatory. She must have sensed my reluctance to sit through another hour of Clarence's dinner stories." He looked up at me through impossibly thick eyelashes and smirked. "If I'd known that I would have you all to myself this evening, I wouldn't have been nearly so averse to the idea."

His words caused the butterflies in my stomach to flutter wildly, as though searching for an escape. "Adrian…" I began, setting down my napkin.

"Relax, Sage," he said. He reached down for his wine glass – already it was half-empty – and took a long, slow drink. I watched as his Adam's apple bobbed and found that I had to gulp too as I hastily glanced back along our empty table. "I was only trying to lighten the mood," he continued. "This is just as awkward for me as it is for you." He paused. "I swear, I didn't know that they were planning this."

I believed him. This was Jill's doing. And Eddie and Angeline's. My heart sank. I wondered if they knew. If Angeline knew, then _everyone_ knew. I may as well sign myself in to a re-education centre right now.

Our waitress arrived then, setting down the glass of water I'd asked for. "Ready to order?" she asked, and then she appeared to notice the empty spaces along our table. "Um… sorry, I assumed you two were alone. Are the rest of your party running late?"

"Actually, they seem to be running in the opposite direction," Adrian said as I tried to edge my chair back from the table. I'd been leaning far closer to him than I'd realised – no wonder the waitress thought we were alone.

"Oh." Our waitress looked across the restaurant before turning back to us. "There's a table for two at the back by the water feature if the two of you would like to start eating without them."

"Sure," said Adrian at the same time as I said, "No, thank you, we were just leaving."

Adrian leaned forward, eyes on mine again. "Sage," he said. "Stay. You might as well. I'll pay. It'll be strictly business, I promise."

The waitress looked extremely uncomfortable. "Um… I can give you a few minutes if you guys need more time to decide…"

"Thank you," said Adrian, pleasantly. He kept his eyes on me as she walked away to serve another table.

"I should go," I said as soon as she was out of earshot.

"Sonya rang me yesterday to update me on the progress of her latest spirit experiments," he said unexpectedly. "I was going to tell you about it during Jill's next trip to Clarence's, but since we're both here now, why wait?"

His eyes shone with intensity, but his tone was light and easy. Neutral. Too neutral. We both knew what it would mean if I stayed. We could spend the whole evening discussing Spirit or the Warriors of Light or Jill's protection, but we'd only be playing a part and we were both fooling ourselves by pretending otherwise.

I tugged my coat from where I'd draped it over the back of my chair, and stood.

"Sydney," Adrian said, rising too. "Stay. Please." I'd never thought my first name was strange, but it sounded strange in his voice. It was so rarely used by him.

"I should go," I repeated, but even as the words left my mouth, I could hear how weak they sounded.

"Sydney," he said again. He made his way around the table. He was careful not to touch me, but it didn't matter. Ever since we kissed, my body seemed to have developed a sixth sense for his. I knew what his hands felt like when they clasped mine, or were pressed against my cheeks or swept down my spine. And I recognised the stirrings of nervousness and anticipation that had become all-too familiar in the last few months. I knew how I would feel if he came any closer.

Our waitress was back again. "Great!" she said, noticing that we were both standing – and likely taking our proximity to be a good sign. "You've decided?"

"Yes," I said, before Adrian could speak. "We'll take the smaller table." I deliberately lowered my eyes, but even so, I saw him stiffen in surprise. He'd expected me to leave. _ I'd_ expected me to leave. I wasn't quite sure where my change of heart had come from.

No, I was lying to myself. I knew exactly where my change of heart had come from. It had come from his proximity and the memory of his kiss and the way he'd called me, "Sydney". And those eyes. No one could resist those eyes.

I kept my eyes averted from his as the waitress took our glasses and led us to the significantly smaller table. He took the menu she offered with a polite "Thanks". I fiddled with a stray thread on my blouse and waited for him to speak first.

"Oh good," he said in a light voice. I looked up to see him perusing the menu. "They have gelato."

"Adrian –" I began, but he cut me off.

"I know, Sage," he said. He lay the menu down and looked at me again. "Strictly business, right?"

I managed a weak smile. "Right."

"And since you're the professional one here, you undoubtedly already know that all the best business meetings involve gelato."

I couldn't supress my laughter. "_Adrian_," I said again, shaking my head. But he'd done the impossible – he'd broken the tension between us. He grinned at my laughter, and the sight of his smile only lifted my spirits even more.

"Now," he said, easing back in his chair and smirking at me like he used to before everything changed between us. "You should also already know that it's customary to start business meetings with boring small talk. It's only polite." He shook his head sombrely. "I didn't make up the rules."

"I see," I said, trying and failing to keep a straight face. "And this small talk would consist of… what exactly?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. How are you? How was your day? Are you doing anything interesting this weekend? Been casting any spells with your witchy History teacher lately? That sort of thing."

My smile faltered at that last question, remembering my latest project. Adrian didn't say anything, but he regarded me curiously and I knew he'd noticed. All teasing aside, he genuinely wanted answers and, on the subject of Ms. Terwilliger and my spellcasting, I wanted to confide in him. He knew how deep my aversion to magic ran, and he'd seen me cast spells first-hand. He was the only person I felt I could speak to about my new extra-curricular activities.

"That sounds like a lot of questions. How long is this meeting supposed to last exactly?"

Adrian frowned in mock-consideration. "Well, it depends. Sometimes, most unfortunately, there's just not enough time to discuss _every_ order of business over dinner. In that event, both parties usually agree to meet again. For coffee?" He sounded as smooth and confident as ever as he spoke, but his voice hitched up on the last word, betraying his uncertainty.

"And this coffee da– meeting," I said slowly, "would also be strictly business?"

"Of course," he said with a toothy grin. "Why, Sage, what else would it be?"

I shook my head with a smile. My heart thumped in my chest, but my mind was oddly clear for the first time in months. I knew what this was. I knew it was wrong. I knew that even attempting the friendly rapport we'd had before was dangerous. I knew that we could never actually get away with this.

But still, as Adrian took advantage of my silence to run through proper business meeting cuisine ("Salads are a sign of inexperienced business-dining, Sage. If you want to make a good impression, you'll have to go for something a bit more adventurous than that.") I knew exactly what I was doing. And I couldn't quite bring myself to care.

* * *

A/N: Again, thank you so much for all the reviews on the last couple of stories! Up next, another one from Adrian's perspective. :)


	8. Healing Power

The prompt for this one contains a pretty big spoiler for the actual story, so I'll reveal it at the end. ;)

* * *

**Healing Power**

_Sage? Sage, no, please, Sage, Sage –_

Pain. So much pain. She'd never imagined anything could hurt this much.

_No, no, no, don't close your eyes; you're not going to die on me, Sydney – _

That voice. Someone was yelling; their voice grew louder as she felt herself lifted from the cool, sticky concrete floor. The pain grew in intensity. She whimpered.

_Yes, that's it, stay with me – _

That voice. Oh, how she loved that voice…

_Sage? Sage!_

.

Sydney woke with a start.

The small, sparsely-furnished bedroom she found herself in was a study in shadows, but a faint sliver of light shone through the slightly-open door to her right. She didn't recognise her surroundings, but even so, there was a sense of familiarity about the place that kept her from panicking.

The room itself was cluttered, but not overly so. The bed she was lying in was warm and comfortable. On the bedside table someone had placed a glass of orange juice. At the far end of the bed were a button-down shirt and a pair of khaki shorts, sloppily folded. She glanced down at herself; she was wearing a wrinkled blouse and a knee-length brown skirt. Why had she fallen asleep in these clothes? What had happened?

She fingered a rip in the sleeve of her blouse, frowning. Her skin beneath the tear was unblemished, but her frayed sleeve was stiff and stained with something dark. She brought it to her nose and felt instantly sick when she caught the undeniable metallic scent of blood. All at once, the events of the evening came flooding back to her.

_A flash of silver. Chanting. A knife aimed at her throat. More chanting. Searing pain. Adrian, eyes wide with panic and fury, launching himself forwards. A falling sensation._

Sydney sat back on the bed and pulled her knees up to her chest. Details were starting to re-form in her mind. The witch – Miss Terwilliger's sister – had captured them. She remembered that. She remembered Adrian kneeling beside her. She remembered the cool, sharp knife cutting into the skin of her throat, preventing both of them from moving as their hands were bound. Then they'd been dragged into a dark, underground room lit by candles – clearly _some_ of Hollywood's stereotypes were true. The witch had questioned her as she set up some kind of ritual. Yet another ritual that seemed to require her blood. Sydney had been halfway through a muttered spell of her own – a particularly nasty offensive spell that she'd learnt only a few weeks before but never thought she'd use – when the witch had returned with the knife and sliced a deep wound across her shoulder. The pain had been so intense that she'd half expected to die then and there. But whatever was in her blood that repelled vampires had reacted violently with the other components of the witch's spell. Miss Terwilliger's sister had been knocked backwards by the blast, the knife flying from her hand. Sydney's memory of the events that followed were hazy, but she recalled Adrian throwing himself towards them, pinning the woman to the floor even with his hands still tied behind his back. She must have lost consciousness then, because the next thing she remembered was the sensation of being carried. Adrian's voice was frantic in her ear: _Sage? Sage!_

Then… there was nothing.

She reached up, tracing her fingers across the smooth skin where she'd been cut. The cut had been deep; she remembered how the knife had felt as it sliced through flesh and muscle, tearing a line across her shoulder dangerously close to her throat.

The memory made her feel faint. She reached for the orange juice beside her and drained the glass in less than ten seconds, not even pausing to consider the calories she was ingesting. She felt better afterwards, though her fingers still lingered shakily over her unmarked shoulder. She knew what must have happened. She just didn't know quite how to feel about it yet.

Now that she'd remembered the night before, she couldn't forget it. She kicked herself free of the layered bed-sheets that someone (and she had a good idea as to who that someone might be) had taken great care to tuck around her – _lest I die of frostbite in the ninety degree heat_, she thought with fondness. Moving quickly, she shrugged out of her ruined clothes and into the shirt and shorts that had been laid aside for her. The shirt was so huge on her that she found she was able to slide it on without undoing any buttons. It fell to her mid-thighs. She pulled on the shorts, rolling them up slightly to compensate for the baggy waistline. Then she rolled the shirtsleeves up too and stole a glance at the mirror beside the door. Although it was too dark to fully make out the room around her, her own reflection was startlingly clear. She looked startlingly wraithlike in the baggy borrowed clothes that she attempted to smooth down, to no avail. Her pale hair gleamed in the darkness. Staring at her reflection, she could have mistaken herself for a ghost or a spirit if it weren't for her eyes. They gleamed with an odd light she'd never noticed before.

_Alive_, she thought. _They make me look so startlingly alive. Like a living, breathing ghost-girl._

And then a dreadful thought occurred to her.

Shuddering, she drew back from the mirror. Cracking the door open wider, she slipped through, squinting slightly as she adjusted to the light. She was in a narrow corridor that she recognised. Following the corridor, she found herself in a softly-lit living room painted a glaringly bright shade of yellow. And there, fast asleep with his head bent back at an awkward angle against the sofa that clashed so terribly with his garish paint job, was Adrian.

Tender feelings welled up within her as her eyes drank in the sight of him. He'd fallen asleep upright, with his arms still clenched by his sides, as if he'd intended to stay up all night. Perhaps he feared their new witch friend would decide to pay them another visit – Sydney doubted it. She knew from experience how weak and drained a witch could feel after performing a particularly intricate spell. They at least had a few more days before they'd need to worry about another visit from her.

_And speaking of magic draining the practitioner…_

Her hand went to her shoulder again, her eyes never leaving his face. His eyelids fluttered and she knew he was dreaming. _A Spirit dream?_ she wondered. Perhaps he was filling Eddie in on the attack. But then, if Jill already knew, Eddie most likely knew too. And she didn't doubt for a second that Jill had witnessed the whole thing. Every time she closed her eyes, she could visualise Adrian's horror-stricken expression as the knife cut through her skin…

Sydney thought it strange that Jill, Eddie and Angeline weren't there with them, though a secret, selfish part of her was glad. If any of the others were here, she would have woken to a hundred questions, which would have inevitably woken Adrian too. She wouldn't have been able to lean against the doorway, gazing at him like this. In any other circumstances, she wouldn't have dared to look his way for more than a passing moment.

Now, she stared as though worried that she might never see him again. Moving so slowly and dazedly that she might as well have been sleepwalking, she found herself by his side. She perched herself on the arm of the two-seater sofa and reached out a trembling hand to brush his hair back from his pale, fluttering eyelids. He looked strangely guarded in his sleep. She'd always found those brilliant green eyes so revealing of his every thought and feeling. She almost wished he would wake, so that she could look into his eyes again and let the love and warmth she saw there cast aside her visions of him staring down at her in horror and fright. But even as she thought of it, she drew her hand back. It felt good to watch over him as he'd watched over her.

_God. If anything had happened to him –_ she thought, and then she pressed her clenched fist against her chest because the idea of something, _anything_, hurting him was just so unbearable that her heart physically _hurt_ and she realised that losing Adrian Ivashkov would break her irreparably.

He must have heard or sensed her, because a moment later he stirred, eyes opening.

"Sage," he said sleepily. Then his eyes opened wider and her presence by his side seemed to startle him fully awake.

"Hi," Sydney said. She knew that she should look away from him now. She should move away. But her heart was about to explode out of her chest and she felt like a wild thing, spiralling out of control. She could scarcely remember why this tingling, growing warmth she felt was so wrong. She just wanted to move closer to him.

"Sage," he said again, all vestiges of sleep gone. "How do you feel?" He reached up to brush his fingers across her shoulder as if checking that the wound hadn't reappeared while he slept. Then he pulled his fingers away. His fingertips left a brilliant spark of static against her skin.

"Are you okay?" she asked him. He was alert now, but he hadn't moved from the awkward slumped position he'd fallen asleep in.

"I asked you first," he said.

"I'm not the one who tackled an armed and dangerous witch with my hands tied behind my back," she pointed out.

"Okay, so that wasn't the best idea I've ever had," Adrian admitted.

"It was stupid," she told him bluntly. "You could have gotten killed. She could have killed you right in front of me–"

"You _were_ _dying_ right in front of me," Adrian said. His voice was low and intense, but when he reached up to brush a stray hair from her cheek, his hand trembled against her skin. "I did the only thing I could think of, and I don't regret it for a second. I don't regret healing you either."

Sydney tensed. She hadn't meant to. She wasn't sure how she felt about being healed by Adrian, but his magic didn't scare her as much as it used to. She'd seen the evil that magic could be used for. Adrian's healing was different. It wasn't natural, but it wasn't evil, either.

_Just like him._

Still, some small part of her cowered in fear at the thought of Spirit running through her veins. "I didn't… I'm not… shadow-kissed now, am I?" she asked, dreading the answer.

He shook his head. "You'd feel it if you were." His voice was strangely hollow now.

She exhaled slowly. "Good," she said finally.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "It's not." His eyes burned with their usual intensity, but his expression was grim. He reached up and brushed his fingers across her collarbone. "I'm sorry," he murmured. He took a shaky breath. "I know how you feel about Spirit and believe me, Sage, I would _never_ have used it on you without your consent in any other circumstances, but there wasn't time and I didn't know where we were or how long it would take to get help and there was so much blood and you wouldn't wake up…"

Sydney reached out, pressing her fingers to his lips. He immediately stopped rambling, but his eyes were still fearful. He was worried that she'd be angry with him, she realised. Even now, he was so cautious around her. Like a zoologist observing a deer, never daring to do or say anything that might cause her to flee.

Her fingers moved, tracing the shape of his lips and then trailing down to his chin and jaw, and she watched their progress curiously, as though they had a mind of their own. She felt dazed and giddy and curiously calm all at once. Was this Spirit's doing? Had he given her too much? Or was she still in shock? She didn't know and much to her own blithe surprise she found that in this moment, she simply didn't care.

Adrian's eyes fluttered closed under heavy lids and then opened again, staring up at her with confusion. And desire. But his body was tense and she knew in that moment that he wouldn't try to initiate anything. He'd kissed her once and she'd fled. He wouldn't risk that again.

She stared at his lips, remembering that evening. All she could think of now was the rush she'd felt when he'd pulled her against him.

"Sage," he began now, but before he could say another word, she had leaned down and pressed her lips to his.

The kiss was clumsy and awkward; Adrian was still slumped in the position he'd fallen asleep in and Sydney, perched on the armrest, had to bend sideways at an uncomfortable angle to face him. He had frozen, eyes wide, hands rigid by his sides, and for one horrible moment, she worried that he would push her away. And then her hands drifted up, raking through his hair, and he relaxed into her with a guttural noise that caused a new, unidentifiable stirring in her stomach. Her free hand tugged at his shirt and she parted her lips against his, all worry and awkwardness forgotten.

Adrian returned the kiss with equal fervour. For all his experience, Adrian didn't kiss carefully as though it were a sport or an art form. There was no technique to these kisses – he kissed enthusiastically, with a breathless passion, as though he felt just as lost to the whims of his body as she did. His arms circled her waist as he took her lower lip between his and she felt herself lifted into his lap, her legs straddling either side of him. He clutched her borrowed shirt, fingers tickling her sides. Her body approved of this new position, shamelessly pressing closer to him. Her fingers still dug into his hair and in what she could later only think of as a moment of Adrian-induced madness, she tilted his head back and ran her tongue along his teeth, her mind cataloguing the sharpness of his canines with impassive scientific interest even as her heart pounded and he groaned into her mouth – a sound that, coupled with her proximity to his teeth, would once have caused her to leap back in fear, but now sent a shiver of pleasure through her entire body.

It was Adrian who eventually broke the kiss; she drew back as he did, worry clouding her mind once more. All of the reasons for pushing him away – Zoe's safety, the threat of re-education, Alchemist and Moroi disapproval of vampire-human relationships, her own lingering unease – came flooding back to her in that moment. What was she doing? Her head still swam with desire, but the daze was fast disappearing and she was uncomfortably aware of how closely aligned their bodies were.

"Sage," Adrian said. He sounded as breathless as she felt. Kissing Brayden had never taken her breath away, but when Adrian kissed her the room seemed to suddenly become airless and stiflingly hot. It brought out a side of her that, until that first kiss, she hadn't known existed. Now that she'd experienced it twice, she wasn't sure she could lose it again. "Sage, I'm not complaining in the slightest, but… why are you doing this?"

_Why?_ For the first time in her life, Sydney couldn't answer that question. Wherever that burst of passion had come from, there had been no reason or logic behind it.

"I know what I'm doing," she said instead. It wasn't quite what he'd asked, but it was the truth. She'd never felt more sure of anything in her life. Kissing Adrian felt _right_.

His fingers traced the lily on her cheek. "What changed?"

"Me," she said honestly. _I've changed. I'm not the person I was when I took my vow and I won't ever be that person again._ The thought should have terrified her, but it didn't.

His smile was soft and it warmed her all over. "Not really," he said. "You're still the bossiest, bravest, most beautiful woman I've ever known."

"The bravest?" she looked down. She didn't feel brave. Mad, yes. She wouldn't still be here, sitting on top of a vampire and confessing her feelings for him at some ungodly hour of the morning if she still had a shred of sanity intact. But brave? She remembered the terror she'd felt as the witch cut through her skin. How powerless she'd been, how all of Wolfe's lessons had fled her mind as soon as she felt the knife's sharp edge.

Adrian tilted her chin up and looked into her eyes. "The bravest," he repeated. "And the strongest. Rose and Eddie and Dimitri – they're strong because they've been fighting since they learned to walk. You don't have that, but you've never once given up or given into fear." He pressed a kiss to her temple. "You're strong up here."

She shook her head. "I was so scared," she confessed, her voice breaking.

"Not half as scared as I was." She saw that fear in his eyes again now. "God, Sage. For a moment I thought you'd really gone. I thought I'd lost you."

His voice broke slightly as he said those last words, and Sydney heard again his voice calling to her, begging her to stay conscious. He'd saved her life tonight and she couldn't begrudge him that. If she knew of a spell that could ease his pain or pull him back from the brink of death, she wouldn't hesitate to use it.

"I won't let her hurt you," he vowed. "If we ever see her again, I'll use one of those fancy kicks Wolfe showed us on her." She smiled at that and the fear faded slightly from his eyes. He couldn't fight off everyone who tried to take him from her. They both knew that sooner or later, her duties would separate them. This one extraordinarily powerful woman seemed an almost manageable threat in comparison.

"And if she kicks you back?"

"Then I'll use my charm."

Sydney scoffed. "Your charm?"

"Don't take it lightly, Sage. My charm is the most powerful weapon I have at my disposal. Even beautiful alchemist women are susceptible to it." He tapped her on the nose; she laughed at his antics, wrapping her arms around his neck. He'd done it again – managed to make her smile even as the world seemed to be falling apart around them.

He shifted, settling into a slightly less awkward position on the couch and she curled up in his arms. Tomorrow they'd deal with the fallout of their actions. Tonight she was happy to sink into this uncomfortable beige couch and drink in the smell and sight of the one person in the world she knew and trusted entirely.

* * *

A/N: Written for the anonymous request: Sydney and Adrian's second kiss. Two prompts to go!


	9. Pie and Comfort

Prompt(s): 'Sydney meeting Adrian's best friend' and 'what happens at Pies & Stuff'.

A/N: This oneshot is based on information about _The Indigo Spell_ that Richelle Mead has tweeted (namely, one specific line I've chosen to quote, and the setting, which will supposedly play a big part in the book). Also, since these are unrelated oneshots, this does not follow on from the last chapter (Sydney and Adrian are not together).

* * *

**Pie and Comfort**

I stood outside the glowing neon sign of Pies & Stuff, wringing my hands anxiously. Already, I was regretting my late-night decision to meet Adrian here. What had I been _thinking_?

Truthfully, I hadn't been in my right mind. Exhausted from sleepless nights spent conjuring with Ms. Terwilliger, horrified by my own rebellious omissions every time I reported back to my superiors, and miserable with loneliness after another long day trying to fix things between myself and a stubbornly uncommunicative Jill, I'd resorted to the one thing I'd told myself I wouldn't do.

_Need to talk to you. Urgent. Meet me tomorrow for lunch? Somewhere public._

I'd sent the text at an ungodly hour of the night, agonising over the wording. Was it too informal? Too familiar? Less than a minute later, I had my reply.

_Course. 1pm? There's pies&stff in twn. Meet u outsde?_

I'd scrawled the details on a notepad, sent back a hasty _Okay, I'll be there,_ and deleted the entire chain of messages from my phone. Then I'd settled down for a sleepless night. The morning's lessons were a blur in my mind; I vaguely remembered Trey asking after my health and Eddie shooting me worried glances.

I checked my watch again. It was ten to one, but I'd already been waiting for five minutes. I twisted my cross necklace, my own personal reminder of who I was. This was a bad idea. This was a terrible idea. I should leave now, ring him to cancel –

Too late. The car of my dreams was already pulling into the lot, steered by a certain Moroi who had starred in too many of my dreams for my liking.

Adrian was out of the car and by my side in an instant. "Sydney," he said, fixing me with a worried frown. "Are you – is everything okay?"

"Hello to you, too," I said. I attempted a smile, but Adrian still looked worried, so I wasn't sure that it was effective. "I'm okay. I'm glad you came. Do you want to go inside?"

He nodded, glanced worriedly at me again, and then abruptly looked away from me. We entered the bright, cheery shop and found ourselves steered to a table for two by a thirty-something waitress whose gum-chewing and exaggerated over-enthusiasm were a clear message that she'd rather be elsewhere.

"Sage, you like berry, right?" Adrian asked as he scanned the laminated menu, barely glancing up at me.

I did a double-take. I had been planning to order just a glass of diet soda. "Yes, but –"

"One cherry, one blueberry," he told the waitress.

"Coming right up!" she said cheerily.

I waited until the waitress had disappeared into the kitchens before I crossed my arms and frowned at him. "I didn't come here to eat pie."

"No, you came here to tell me something 'urgent' that, for some mysterious reason, you couldn't tell me over the phone or in the privacy of my apartment." He still didn't seem to want to meet my eyes. "Since we're here instead, you might as well eat."

I looked down, suddenly uncomfortable. The truth was that I wasn't sure if I trusted myself to be alone with him in that apartment anymore. This wasn't a conversation I could have with anyone else present, but being in a public place, surrounded by people who knew nothing about us, made it slightly easier.

Adrian put down the laminated menu with stiff hands. "Look," he said, "Sydney, if this is about me –"

"What?" I said, genuinely surprised. "No! Why would this be about you?"

Adrian actually looked at me then, and his eyes widened with what looked like a mix of relief and embarrassment. "I just thought, since you wanted to meet me in public, you were going to tell me to get lost or something." He shrugged.

I was speechless for a long moment. I'd been distant with Adrian since finding out about his feelings for me – and since realising that those feelings might not be as unreciprocated as I might have liked – but although I'd briefly considered cutting him out of my life entirely, I'd quickly realised that it would be impossible. I needed him. And not just in a work-related capacity. The thought of never seeing him again was physically painful and I was ashamed and slightly disappointed that Adrian thought I might be capable of saying goodbye so easily.

"It's not about you," I promised. I felt warm and began folding the napkin in front of me to occupy my hands. "I… I'd actually like to ask for your help with something."

He raised his eyebrows. "Sydney Sage needs help from me? Has the apocalypse started early? Did I miss the memo about hell freezing over?"

I smiled faintly. "I've needed your help pretty much non-stop since we got here," I said honestly.

Adrian gave me a look that said he didn't believe that for a second. "So, if you didn't call me over here to break my heart into a million pieces again" – I winced, though his tone was mild and he was smiling – "what did you want me for?"

I put down the napkin. "It's… it's about the Alchemists," I began hesitantly.

Adrian's expression was carefully composed. "You say that as if you're not one of them," he noted in a detached voice.

"I _am_ one of them," I said quickly. "But… that doesn't mean that I have open access to all of their – _our_ – reports. I don't know everything that goes on. Some information is closed off to me."

Adrian waited for me to continue, but as I was deciding how best to phrase my suspicions, our waitress returned.

"One cherry, one blueberry!" she said perkily, setting down our plates. "Can I get you guys anything else?"

Adrian shook his head and I thanked her as she left. Then I stared down at my plate.

When Adrian had ordered the pies, I'd been slightly annoyed, but now I was horrified. The steaming hot pie was served with two huge dollops of melting ice-cream and mixed berries. And it was huge. I'd expected a single slice, not… _this_.

"Adrian," I said, aghast. "I can't eat all of this."

He frowned through a mouthful of pie. "You don't have to eat all of it," he said once he'd swallowed. He seemed to be choosing his words carefully. "But this fine establishment is brand new in town and uneaten pies on our table probably won't make a good impression on potential customers who happen to be passing by." He pointed at my plate with his fork. "A business woman like yourself should do her best to help new businesses like this one thrive."

I raised an eyebrow, trying not to smile. "I won't be able to eat it all," I warned as I picked up my fork.

He shrugged, trying and failing to look as though he didn't care whether I ate any at all. "I doubt there's much you can't do if you put your mind to it, Sage."

I tried a tiny piece, closing my eyes at the taste of warm berries. I'd have to skip a few lunches this week to make up for the extra calories, but maybe it was worth it.

"This is delicious," I admitted as I tried some with the ice-cream. I sighed happily as it melted on my tongue. When I opened my eyes, Adrian was staring at me, his loaded fork dangling forgotten from his slackened hand.

"Adrian," I asked, concerned, "Are you okay?"

He blinked. "Fine," he said hoarsely. He looked away and wiped his mouth on his napkin. My eyes followed his hands up to his lips, and then I found that I had to look away too.

"Maybe we should make this a weekly thing," Adrian said, sounding pleased. "It's good to see you actually enjoying food for once."

I shook my head. "This is a one-time thing," I said firmly.

Adrian sighed.

"What?"

He gestured to my half-eaten pie. "You know what I'm talking about," he said. "Why do you insist on doing this to yourself?"

"You know why," I said, tersely. I put my fork down and pushed my chair back very slightly. The knowledge that Adrian was aware of my preoccupation with losing weight made me uncomfortable. I glanced over at the people on the tables near us, but much to my relief no one seemed to be listening in.

He scoffed. "A few extra pounds won't kill you. A few extra pounds would be _good_ for you. Do you want me to call you _Celery Stick_ instead of Cupcake or Honey-Pie? It just doesn't inspire the same warm and fuzzy feelings."

"I want you to call me Sage," I said automatically. To my embarrassment, I felt my cheeks heat and heard my voice waver over my own surname. "I mean… I mean I don't want you to call me anything," I corrected lamely.

I risked a glance at him over the sticky formica-topped table. Adrian was grinning. "Just eat your pie, Sage."

I dug into the rapidly cooling pie and shovelled a heaping forkful into my mouth to keep myself from saying anything else embarrassing or dangerous. Very aware of him looking at me as I ate, I barely noticed the taste.

"So," Adrian said. He seemed to be making an effort to steer the conversation away from dangerous territory. "You were about to tell me something about the Alchemists?"

I nodded. I took another bite of pie and then set my fork down again for good. "I… I might have found something," I said, my heart thrumming in my chest as I spoke. "Something I wasn't supposed to see. Something the Alchemists _really_ don't want to be public knowledge."

Adrian looked alarmed. "Are they aware that you know about it?" he asked quickly.

I shook my head. He nodded seriously. "Good," he said. "Keep it that way."

I was surprised by the fierceness in his tone. Surprised and pleased. I hadn't told Adrian much about our organisation, but he was remarkably good at reading between the lines. He knew that I was right to be worried.

"I need your help," I admitted in a voice no louder than a whisper. "But no one else can know about this. I… I can't ask any of the others for help. It's better for them if they don't know. And I _know_ that I can't reveal this to any other Alchemists. I shouldn't be telling you any of this, but… You're the one person I trust to keep this a secret." My voice faltered slightly. "You don't have to do this. What I'm asking… It's dangerous. It's completely insane."

Adrian set down his own fork. "You're my best friend, Sage," he said quietly. He looked up at me from beneath impossibly thick lashes. "Hell, you and Jill are probably the only two people in the world who really _know_ me. I'd do anything for you. And not just because… Not just because of how I feel about you. But because I know you'd do the same for me." He leaned forward, resting his hands on the table just inches from mine. "Whatever else there is between us, that hasn't changed. Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it."

My shock at his first words melted into a painful, all-too-familiar ache. In that moment I wanted so badly to take his hands in mine. I wanted to share the sentiment, to reveal to him that before I'd come to Palm Springs I'd worried that I'd never meet anyone I could call a friend, never mind someone who truly understood me in the way that he did.

"Thank you," I said, my voice cracking. I cleared my throat and quickly leaned back, brushing my sweaty palms on my trousers. I took a deep breath and looked him directly in the eye. "I have to know the truth. I want to break into the Alchemist headquarters in Virginia." My words lightened the load of betrayal I'd felt for the past few days, as if expressing my own treachery had lessened the guilt I felt even as I planned it. "It'll be easy for me to get in, but I'll need help getting the information I want and then getting out. The only option I see is to use compulsion. If they won't give me the answers I want, I'll find them myself."

Adrian didn't even look surprised. On the contrary, his face lit up. "You're serious," he said.

I nodded. "I am."

"You're planning to break into the files of your own superiors."

"Yes."

He grinned. "And you want my help – _a Moroi's_ _help_ – to do it."

I flushed. "Yes."

Adrian stared at me dreamily. "Have I mentioned recently how much I love you?"

My heart stuttered and I couldn't help but flinch. He noticed my reaction and his face fell slightly, but he reached out and took my hand in his. "Hey," he said. "What you're doing – it's brave and brilliant and I support you one-hundred percent. Best friend, remember? You want me to keep my distance and that's what I'll do. You want me to help you break into some top-secret files, and I'll do just that."

I smiled. "You mean it?" I asked, hardly daring to believe that it had taken so little persuasion. "You'll help me?"

Adrian brushed his fingers along mine, sending sparks across my skin. "Whatever you need, Sage," he said. "You only have to ask."

* * *

A/N: Once again, thank you for all the reviews and prompts (which, at this rate, will easily keep me going until February)!


	10. Horatio

Prompt: Adrian seeing Marcus and Sydney together and getting jealous. This takes place a few weeks after the end of _The Golden Lily_ - as usual, it's not related to any of my previous oneshots!

A/N: This one is also inspired by the new facebook photos of the upcoming _Indigo Spell_ trailer.

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**Horatio**

Jill had been spending a lot of time in my dorm recently, since Eddie and Angeline were often in hers. So I wasn't completely surprised, when Marcus and I stopped by to pick up some supplies from my Alchemy bag, to find the room occupied. But of all the possible scenarios I imagined I might find when I unlocked my dorm room, Adrian Ivashkov lounging on my bed was not what I had anticipated.

"Adrian," I said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

He grinned. "What, no hug for your big brother? Aren't you going to –" He broke off, his eyes focusing on the person behind me. Marcus moved to my side and the mirth slipped from Adrian's face like rainwater trickling down a windowpane.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asked sourly. "I didn't realise this room was booked. Bit late for a private study session, isn't it?"

My face reddened and beside me, Marcus coughed awkwardly. I was ready to excuse myself and drag Adrian into the corridor to speak with him privately, when something else caught my eye.

Marcus had noticed it too. "That's a penguin," he said bemusedly, as if to clear the tension from the room.

"Nothing gets past you, does it?" said Adrian sarcastically. "Master of observation, you are."

"Adrian," I asked in the calmest voice I could manage, "why is there a giant inflatable penguin in my dorm room?"

Adrian stood and crossed his arms. His eyes flickered between me and Marcus. For a moment, he looked as though he was going to say something important. Then he shrugged and muttered, "Forget it. See you tomorrow at Clarence's." He shouldered past us and into the hallway.

I looked down at the penguin. For the life of me, I couldn't imagine where he'd got it or what had possessed Adrian to drag it from his car, up the stairs and into my tiny dorm room. I couldn't imagine how he'd managed to even gain entrance to my dorm – I had the only key, after all. I imagined him sitting here waiting for me to return, wearing that stupid smug grin, with only a giant inflatable penguin for company…

"Wait," I called. I turned to Marcus. "Stay here, okay? I'll be right back."

I left before he could respond. Adrian had already reached the end of the corridor and he pushed open the doors that led to the staircase. I followed.

"Adrian, just wait." I called. He was halfway down the stairs now, but when he saw me on the landing, he stopped and waited for me to join him.

"Sorry," he said. "I didn't think… I just assumed you'd be alone. I should've called you or something."

I shook my head. "That doesn't matter. Just… tell me why you came here. With a penguin." I laughed at the absurdity of those words coming out of my mouth. "Where did you even get it?"

"I won it," he said. He drew himself up a little straighter. "In an art competition at the college. Fifth prize."

"Adrian, that's great!" I said. "Congratulations." _I'm so proud of you,_ I wanted to say. It was true, but those words seemed too personal for us now.

He shrugged like it didn't matter very much, but I could tell that it meant a lot to him.

"So why did you bring it here?" I asked.

"Well, since you were the inspiration behind the piece, I figured you deserved an equal share of penguin companionship. I charmed the hall matron into giving me the spare key for your room." He paused. "Okay, I might have used a little compulsion. It didn't seem like such a crazy idea at the time."

I shook my head, bewildered. _Crazy_. I wondered if Spirit was bothering him again, but I didn't know how to ask.

"You're not keeping him though," Adrian said in a mock-stern tone. He waggled a finger at me. "Dual custody. I want him back on weekends."

I didn't know what to say to that. "Why… why are you doing this? Showing up at my dorm? Being so nice. Talking to me as if…" _As if nothing happened between us. As if we could go back to the way things were._

Adrian shook his head. "I don't know. I just… I wanted to see you. Consider the penguin a peace offering," he said. "I… I miss you. And I'm sorry if I overwhelmed you… that day."

_That day,_ mocked a voice in the back of my head. _The day. The day he kissed you and confessed his love for you and made you feel alive and awake in a way you'd never dreamed you could feel before…_

Adrian reached forward tentatively. His hand brushed against mine. He kept his eyes on me, his gaze saying _Please don't run away again._ My hand tingled from the contact, but I didn't draw back.

"I want to be your friend, Sage," he said. His green eyes gazed into mine. "I'd rather be your friend than nothing at all."

My breath caught. Heart hammering, I curled my fingers around his. "I would like that," I admitted. He grinned so widely that I couldn't help but smile back. _Friends_. It was the wrong word to describe what Adrian was to me… and it was just as dangerous. But somehow, this felt good. Safe, even.

"Good." Adrian squeezed my fingers gently before letting go. "I'd better head home. Your other friend will be wondering where you are." Adrian's voice sounded gruff as he lingered over the word _friend_. "Don't forget, I want Horatio back this weekend."

"Adrian, you're not naming our penguin _Horatio_."

"Why not? Have you got something against Italian penguins?"

I shook my head, grinning in spite of myself.

"Horatio it is, then." He smirked back at me and then raked a hand through his hair. "Sage? Can I ask you something that I probably have no right to ask as a friend?"

"You can ask me anything."

"That guy…" Adrian said. I felt myself freeze up. Did Adrian recognise him? Had he seen Marcus' tattoo? It had been covered, but his was a lot harder to hide than mine. My heart hammered and I wasn't sure why. I knew I could trust Adrian to keep this to himself.

"Marcus? What about him?" I asked cautiously.

Adrian's lips pursed. "Nothing. I just… Every time I've seen you recently, you've been with him." He sounded annoyed. It was true that I had been spending most of my free time with Marcus. But I couldn't tell Adrian why. Not yet. Not until Marcus had told me everything he knew about the Alchemists. If I revealed my suspicions now, without proof, it would feel like a betrayal. And I'd betrayed the Alchemists enough already where Adrian was concerned.

I shrugged. "He's helping me with something."

Adrian nodded slowly. "Right. He's… he's just a study partner, then?"

"Right," I said hesitantly. Adrian breathed a sigh of relief and I suddenly realised what he'd really been asking. A warm tingling feeling coiled up in my chest. Was Adrian… _jealous_ of Marcus? The thought almost made me laugh. But then I imagined seeing Adrian constantly in the presence of some strange girl – one of the Moroi girls from Los Angeles, perhaps – and the warm feeling evaporated instantly.

"He's just a friend," I said quickly.

Adrian raised an eyebrow. "Like you and I are just friends?"

"No," I said emphatically. "Nothing like you and I."

His eyes burned into mine. "Good," he said in an oddly strained voice. I felt warm again, but this time the feeling seemed to burn all the way through me. He reached out and squeezed my fingers once more. Was this normal friend behaviour? It didn't seem right, but I couldn't find the strength to complain.

"See you tomorrow, Sage. Tell Mario and Horatio I said bye."

"His name is _Marcus_," I complained, but Adrian just winked at me and disappeared back down the stairs.

When I returned to my room, Marcus was perched on the wooden chair at the edge of my desk. Horatio the penguin was propped up on the floor beside my bed. I lifted it and sat it on my bed, right where Adrian had been lying.

"Um, everything okay with the vampire?" Marcus asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yes," I said, still feeling a little flustered. I grabbed my Alchemy bag. "Ready to go?"

I glanced back into the room just before I closed the door. Horatio the penguin looked ridiculously out of place – a splash of colour and personality amongst the brown and maroon and grey.

And loathe as I was to change, I actually kind of liked it.


	11. Lessons in Secret-Keeping

Prompt: Eddie and Angeline find out about sydrian

A/N: This one takes place sometime vaguely in the near future - Sydney is a little bit more at ease with her fake family. For those of you who are confused about the chapter sequence, again, let me stress that they are unrelated and in no particular order. I'll probably sort the chapters into a more logical order once The Indigo Spell is released, but they're supposed to be read as individual one-shots (with the exception of Wedding Bells pts. 1 and 2).

* * *

**Lessons in Secret-Keeping (or How Not to Lie About the Moroi in Your Bed by Sydney Sage)**

There weren't many things in the world that could make me lose track of time. Occasionally, I might submerge myself in my work or a really good book and emerge, blinking in the seemingly-sudden darkness, hours later. But only on my days off, when I knew I had the time to do so. I certainly never allowed my enthusiasm for recreational activities like research or mechanics allow me to miss an appointment.

Which was why, when I heard a sharp rap on my dorm room door, my first dazed thought was that I'd misheard – surely it was someone knocking on the door of the room next to mine. I could ignore it. Then I heard Eddie's voice, strained with a surprising degree of urgency and concern.

"Sydney, are you in there? Is everything okay?"

I scrambled from my bed, almost falling in the process. Adrian sniggered and flopped back down on the rumpled sheets. With his hair in disarray and his shirt half-unbuttoned, he looked entirely too tempting for his own good. Or mine. He'd only come up with me because I'd needed to pick up my alchemy kit, but one thing had led to another – as they usually did nowadays whenever we found ourselves alone. The alarm clock beside my bed told me we should have been downstairs in the dorm lobby to meet the others almost fifteen minutes ago.

"Fine!" I blurted out, my voice higher-pitched than usual. "I'm fine! Just give me a second!"

I scrambled to the mirror I'd propped up on my bedside table, desperately attempting to flatten my hair. Adrian, who seemed to find this situation as amusing as I found it mortifying, wrapped an arm around me, his lips returning to my neck.

"_Get off_," I hissed, pushing him away as Eddie asked, "You sure? You don't sound so good."

I slapped half-heartedly at Adrian's hands as they drifted down to my hips. "I'm sure. Why don't you guys go wait in the car? I'll be down in a few minutes."

Too late. I heard a click and my door creaked open. Panicking, I pushed Adrian back down onto the bed and forced my way through the gap in the door, preventing them from looking inside.

Angeline stood directly in front of me, holding a credit card in one hand. Eddie and Jill were behind her and all three looked slightly startled at my sudden appearance.

I blinked. "Um… did you just try to break into my room?" I asked Angeline.

She shrugged and pocketed the card. "You were taking too long."

"And we were getting worried," Eddie put in. He frowned at me in that serious way of his and then looked away, like something about my appearance bothered him. "Um… we can wait downstairs for you if you need more time…"

"Yes," I said quickly. "Yes, I just need to grab my things. I won't be long."

Eddie nodded, still not looking directly at me as he moved away from the door. But Angeline stepped closer – far closer than I would have considered appropriate – and gave me a once-over. "Are you sure you're okay?" She pressed a cool hand to my forehead. "You feel feverish."

Jill, who had remained silent up until now, let out a muffled snigger. Eddie looked at her oddly.

"No! I'm _fine_, I've just been… Math! I was doing math." I raked a hand through my tangled hair. "That – er – that algebra project Mr. Stevenson set us."

Eddie managed to meet my eyes then, but the look he gave me was sceptical. "Sydney, that's due tomorrow."

"So?"

"So don't you usually do your homework, like, an entire week before everyone else?" Angeline asked suspiciously.

Jill smirked. "Maybe she just lost track of time," she suggested innocently. I deliberately looked away from her.

"I'll meet you in the parking lot in five minutes," I promised. "I just need to… to call Clarence and explain that we're running a little behind schedule." I knew that Clarence didn't care what time we showed up – he usually forgot what days we came for Jill's feed anyway – but Eddie and Angeline seemed mollified with this excuse. I inched back into my room and quickly shut the door before Angeline could stop me. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the wall, sighing in relief when I heard the three of them retreating.

"Well," said Adrian wryly. "If I'd known math could get you this hot and bothered, I'd have offered to help you study."

I opened my eyes. He was still lounging spread-eagled on my bed as if he belonged there. He'd propped himself up with one arm behind his head; the other was resting on his bare stomach. Blood pooled beneath my skin as I was reminded of how heated things had gotten between us before Eddie and the others had arrived.

"Shut up." His grin widened at my brilliant retort, so I crossed the room and threw a pillow at him for good measure. "We have to go downstairs." I groaned, slumping back down on the bed beside him. "On second thought, I guess you'll have to wait a few minutes and follow us once we're gone. They don't know you're here."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Adrian said as he sat up and began to re-button his shirt.

I froze. "What do you mean?"

He grinned again and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Come on, Sage. They're not completely dense. They've known for months that there's _something_ going on between us. Maybe even longer than you have. And you weren't exactly subtle just now."

"Well I'd like to have seen you try to come up with a better excuse on the spur of the moment," I huffed, affronted.

"How about: Sorry, Eddie, but Sydney can't come to the door right now. She's too busy being ravaged beyond her wildest, steamiest dreams by the best-looking guy in Palm Springs." He nipped playfully at my ear as I laughed.

"Beyond my wildest dreams?" I asked coquettishly. I even trailed my fingers along his arm for good measure as I looked up at him. "I wouldn't go that far. Have you visited my dreams lately? This was tame in comparison."

Adrian stared at me for a long moment, his green eyes blazing. Then he groaned and rested his forehead on my shoulder. "_Jesus,_ _Sage_. You can't just say something like that and then leave me here alone. That's _cruel_."

I ran a hand fondly through his hair and then moved to pick up my things. I left Clarence a quick voicemail message that I knew he probably wouldn't listen to and then threw my satchel over my shoulder.

"See you at Clarence's in about ten minutes." I said, leaning down to kiss Adrian goodbye. He threaded a hand through my hair, pulling me back to him when I leaned back, and we kissed until my phone chirped – probably with a new text from Jill or Eddie or Angeline – and I pulled away reluctantly. I unlocked the door and was halfway through it when he said, "Sage, wait."

I looked back, one hand still clutching the doorframe. He stood up and sauntered over to me. For a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me goodbye again, but he just stood there, inches from me, his hands trailing up my sides until they came to rest at my shoulders. Then he reached down and brushed his fingers along my clavicle.

"What're you –" I began, and then froze as he tugged me closer by the collar of my mauve dress shirt and deftly re-did the top three buttons, from my throat to my upper chest. My cheeks burned. _Oh, god._ _This_ was why Eddie could hardly meet my eye. I hadn't been showing much skin, but by my modest standards, it was a lot.

"There," Adrian said with a teasing glint in his eyes. "Wouldn't want anyone to think you've been doing something scandalous up here. You know, like even more scandalous than last-minute homework."

I pushed him back into the room before I could be drawn in again by that smirk or his eyes or the throaty sound he made as the door clicked shut. Giving myself a once-over just to check that the rest of my clothes were buttoned as they should be, I hurried down the stairs and into the parking lot where I found Jill, Eddie and Angeline all leaning against the side of a car waiting for me.

Leaning against Adrian's bright yellow mustang.

_Oh._

"Hey, Sydney," Angeline called out. All three of them were wearing identical knowing smirks. "Have you seen Adrian recently? Strange that his car's here but he's nowhere to be found, don't you think?"

I mumbled something under my breath as I steered them towards my much less ostentatious car. _Next time_, I thought rebelliously, _I'll let Adrian answer the door_.

* * *

A/N: Again, I don't respond to reviews nearly as much as I'd like to, but I read and love each and every one. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to leave feedback! Happy holidays!


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